New York, NY, April 28, 2016 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today condemned as “highly offensive” a statement by Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. Ambassador, comparing Palestinian terrorists to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

During a press conference on April 27, Ambassador Mansour said: “[Israel’s] representative on the U.N. Security Council trying [sic] to show that all the Palestinian people who have legitimate rights to resist occupation in legitimate ways he paints them as terrorists. Guess what, all colonizers, all occupiers, including those who suppressed the Warsaw [Ghetto] uprising, labeled those who resisted them as terrorists.”

“The Palestinian Ambassador’s comparison of Palestinian terrorists to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is a highly offensive and entirely false analogy,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “In broader terms, the Ambassador’s implicit comparison of Israel to the Nazis further exacerbates his outrageous comments. Those carrying out violence against Israelis seek to harm and terrorize innocent civilians. Their crimes have included stabbing elderly passengers riding on a bus, or murdering mothers standing in the doorstep of their homes, or brutally assaulting exchange students simply walking down the street. It is grotesque to compare the violent terrorists who committed such crimes to those Jewish civilians who bravely resisted the armed Nazi soldiers who had come to ‘liquidate’ the ghetto and only did so because they had no other choice but to fight or die.

“The Ambassador’s comments diminish the memories of those who perished in the uprising and betray those innocents who have been killed in the recent wave of violence,” Mr. Greenblatt added. “He should apologize and refrain from using similar Holocaust analogies in any setting, particularly in diplomatic dialogue.”

ADL is the world’s leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-Semitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education, and fighting hate online, ADL is the first call when acts of anti-Semitism occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.